Sneaky Satan

One thing I consistently pray when praying for this request is that God sets a hedge around the prayers of me and my prayer partner. I pray that God will protect the prayers from Satan's attack and that He'll keep the paths clear for it to be answered. As I was praying last Friday night the thought occurred to me that my prayers themselves have not been under much attack and immediately I attributed this to God bearing the brunt of any attack and making it easier for me. While there may be some truth to that statement, I just wasn't seeing how Satan really was attacking.
Sin separates us from God and makes it so that God cannot hear our prayers. There are things I struggle with in my walk with God. I can have a very critical spirit. I tend to hold other people to my spiritual standards rather than God's (my mom used to call me her little pharasee), I can be undisciplined when it comes to staying caught up on school work. Since I began this prayer journey, I have struggled more than usual with my critical and judgemental attitude. it seems like every time I begin to pray, I first have to spend time confessing this and restoring my relationship with God. It did not occur to me until Friday night that THIS is Satan's attack, his way of keeping my prayer from being answered. If he can keep me separated from God, he doesn't have to worry about the request being answered because God can't hear it. The Bible describes Satan as crafty and subtle and boy is he. I was looking for obstacles to be thrown in the way; I was looking for my committment to waver, for my faith to falter...and those are things I have dealt with, but those were the things I was expecting so I was prepared. I wasn't prepared for the attack to come in areas unrelated to my prayer. I still struggle. The closer we get to actually meeting Tebow, Satan will ratchet up his attacks, but at least I am more aware of at least this area of attack and can ask God to give me discernment to see ALL the ways Satan is trying to prevent this request from being answered.